In The Seaside Town, That They Forgot To Close Down…

On Friday, I attended a Morrissey concert in Great Yarmouth of all places with Ricki (very old and dear school friend) and Janine and Simon for a bit of a trip down memory lane. What a fantastic evening – albeit incredibly surreal!!

Having come to terms very recently with the fact that I can no longer hare around like I used to (this concert was booked pre-pregnancy, and my original attention was to belt it down to Great Yarmouth after work), I took the day off work on Friday, so that I could approach the whole weekend at a more leisurely pace. Friday morning I got up reasonably early and drove over to Southwold to meet Tracy and Mum for a lovely mooch around the shops in Southwold, and a delicious lunch in one of the cafes there. I also got to see Marie working in Tracy’s shop – so that really made my day. After lunch we went to the school to pick up Oscar (my first time at St. Felixes), and even got a kiss from an adorable looking Henry – who looked so grown up in his little shorts and long socks – the likes of which would never have been seem in my grubby old school in Lowestoft! Private education not only buys you an excellent standard of teaching, but adorable looking children straight out of a Harry Potter movie! ;-)

Early evening I went to pick up Ricki, and we filled our boots at a carvery in Gorleston (all you can eat carvery for £5!) – not exactly conducive to a night on the tiles, but bloody delicious all the same! We managed to get parked right next to the Britannia Pier (the venue of Morrissey’s choice, bizarrely!), which I haven’t been to since I was a kid – and was dragged to see the likes of Cannon and Ball or Freddie Star by my parents! We had a couple of drinks in the bar on the pier (again, surrealism reigned – and we saw a few familiar faces from the dim and distant past), and then made our way to the theatre. Thankfully, one of the crowd going had queued for an inordinate amount of time and saved us seats five rows from the front – I must confess to feeling slightly guilty when we made our way straight to the front!

Morrissey was fantastic! Whereas in the past (some ten years or so back when I saw him last), he would begrudgingly play one or maybe two Smiths songs with a pained expression on his face, he must have devoted around a third of his set to his old stuff – enough to keep me very happy indeed! I was shocked by how much older he looked, I have to say… although the guy could still move, despite apparently being ill for a week beforehand (several of the gigs in the week leading up to this one had been cancelled!). I was also surprised to see how some of his backing band had aged – although life on the road can’t be kind to the body!

I must be getting old or something though… when he ripped off his shirt (as he normally does on such occasions) I actually blushed for him – it was vaguely like watching ‘yer Dad’ getting undressed. Certainly not the gusset ripping reaction he would have got from me in the past… although to be honest, even Johnny Depp standing on my doorstep in the nude would have trouble firing up such feelings in my achy limbs at the moment! During the build up for an encore (in the past I would have been galloping towards the stage, screaming for more), I was cooing at pictures of Janine’s new baby Martha… see? There isn’t any hope for me, is there???!!!!